The present invention relates to power systems and more particularly, to mobile, self-contained power systems that can be easily constructed in an in-field environment. The self-contained power systems may include communications systems configured to provide monitoring and statistics for the self-contained power systems.
Electric power is typically routed from power generating stations along an electrical power grid to end users, such as home owners and businesses. While electric power from traditional electrical power grids is readily available in many locations throughout the world, there remain vast regions where no electric power is available. Even in locations where electric power may be available, there are a number of situations where an additional power source would be desirable to supplement any existing power scheme. In particular, there are many regions in the world where more than a majority of the people live without being connected to a power grid. For example, in some parts of India and other developing countries, a majority of the people live in villages that have no power. In addition, other infrastructure, such as paved roads, is likewise lacking and therefore, it is very difficult to even establish a traditional electrical power grid since it can be difficult to access such regions. Also, the building of a traditional electrical power grid requires a number of components including a network to connect power plants to multiple substations. The wiring from substations to customers is referred to as electrical distribution. Other components such as substations with step down transformers and the like are also required to deliver power to end consumers. Establishing a power transmission network is very costly and requires the development of a complex infrastructure that extends over a substantial number of miles to reach distant end users.
Over the recent years, there has been a significant movement to develop alternative energy sources. Alternative energy generally refers to any source of usable energy that is intended to replace fuel sources without the undesired consequences of the replaced fuels. Two of the more studied alternative energy sources are solar and wind power. Solar and wind power generation systems are known and can be applied in a number of different applications; however, there are disadvantages associated with each. For example, these energy sources generally have not been standardized and therefore, they must be custom built for each application and/or at each desired site. This results in the systems being costly. In addition, these custom built systems typically require days to assemble and similarly, to disassemble. Moreover, traditional solar and wind power systems are not modular and typically, once a particular system has been designed, it is very difficult to add components to the system without a costly redesign or modification.
Conventional power transmission systems are neither intended nor are they designed for easy transportation to a desired location. As mentioned above, many areas where people do not have electric power are remote areas of countries that are far from more developed cities and more developed infrastructure. Also, conventional power generation systems do not provide adequate versatility for receiving power from different types of power generating devices, and for supplying power to a variety of different power receiving devices requiring different types of electrical supply. Many power generating systems are designed with a single type of power generating device, such as gas powered generator, solar powered generator, wind powered generator, etc. As a result, interchanging power receiving devices from the power generating devices is very difficult if not impossible in existing power generating systems.
Current mobile power systems include several drawbacks. These existing mobile power systems lack modularity and/or the ability to employ multiple types of power generation devices. Moreover, these systems do not permit deployment of the power generation devices remotely from the housing in which the system components are transported. Still further, the transportable design of existing mobile power systems limits their overall total system power output. For example, in many cases current mobile power systems are limited by their configuration and provide less than 10 kilowatts (kW) of total system power.
The present invention provides a mobile power generating system that overcomes the above-discussed deficiencies of traditional power generating systems, while also providing real-time monitoring and statistics for said power generating system.